Ken Leistner is
an American strength training writer, personal trainer, strength
consultant for the National Football League, and chiropractor.
He is often known as "Dr. Ken". Photo By Kathy Leistner
- Stone by Slaters
Hardware |
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History
of Powerlifting, Weightlifting and Strength Training - Part
Ten
by Dr. Ken Leistner
The Jackson Barbell.
Doing most of my training in the garage, I
had an awareness of what was going on throughout
the country, due to my obsessive reading habits.
I scoured the local newsstands for Muscle Power,
Mr. America, and Strength And Health. When
it first hit the press, York’s Muscular
Development became a favorite because it had
a monthly powerlifting/odd lift feature and
unlike what was typical for Strength And Health
that focused upon Olympic lifting, articles
about those who specialized in the bench press,
squat, or deadlift. I discovered Iron Man magazine
and because the first issue I saw featured
Olympic lifting champion Norbert Schemansky
on the cover, it motivated me even more to
get stronger. All of the other magazines, save
the occasional issue of Strength And Health,
featured well muscled bodybuilders on the cover,
sometimes paired with a good looking young
lady in a bathing suit, sometimes in a posed
shot. Seeing a champion lifter as the featured
athlete really drove home the point that strength
was king. Wow, this was wonderful stuff and
for those who weren’t alive or aware
of the dissemination of information circa the
early 1960’s, long before the internet
or personal computers were in anyone’s
consciousness, it was motivating and exciting
to read about the training, contest results,
and personality features drawn from all parts
of the U.S. Locally, the lifting and bodybuilding
crew was small enough, even in the New York
City and Long Island area, that we all knew
each other, by sight, by reputation, or through
sharing a workout at one of the very few real
gyms. When Tony asked me to enter a scheduled
Odd Lift contest in Manhattan and be part of
the group of storefront gym competitors, I
was elated yet a bit anxious. Tony also said
that we would change the usual training procedures
and do some specialized work for the contest
so that we would be ready for the actual lifts
as done in competition. To me, this was truly
the big time.
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The
Jackson No. 1-A Deluxe International
Olympic Revolving Sleeve Contest Barbell |
Tony also noted that if we used both the York
Olympic bar and the Jackson Olympic Barbell
set that we had in our small facility, our
lifters would have an advantage. This was the
first exposure I had to “contest preparation” and
some of the lessons from that initial experience
have been put into use even until this very
day. We had a pair of one hundred pound York
plates that had been sold as “standard” plates
but these had been drilled out so that they
fit an Olympic bar with its two-inch or in
the case of the York bar, “almost two-inch” portal.
With a chance that the contest organizer would
have, and use one hundred pound plates, we
would at least squat and deadlift with them
because, as Tony explained even to the more
experienced men that had been convinced to
join in the planned fun, “the hundreds
feel different than forty-fives on the bar” and
of course, they do. The Jackson set was a mystery
to me, an unknown only because I had never
before seen one in any of the other garage
or storefront gyms I had been to visit, nor
at the local YMCA’s in the City or Brooklyn.
York was the ubiquitous set and Jackson was,
in my mind inferior if it wasn’t pictured
in the magazines. I was incorrect.
History
Supplement: Ray Rigby
Almost everyone in the sport of powerlifting
who had an interest in the international
scene and/or lifting at the top level,
knew that Ray Rigby of Australia was
close with Kathy and me. When I played
football and did security work in the
entertainment industry, I could have
stood next to Ray and looked as if
I was a bit more than his little brother.
Unfortunately, at least for appearances,
when Ray and I were friendly I was
no longer 232 pounds but rather, 165-180
at my height of a cut under 5’6”.
At 6’ and 300-315 pounds, Ray
by any standard, was a big man! Round
faced and usually smiling, Ray may
have given the air, especially when
visiting our home in New York and bundled
up against the cold weather, of the
jovial fat man but he was anything
but that. Hard as stone everywhere,
including his abdominal region, every
muscle in his body was athletically
gifted and instantly responsive to
his commands. I have no doubt that
despite his relative lack of height,
he had the athleticism to play offensive
guard in the National Football League
had he received exposure to the game
and the appropriate training. Incredibly
strong, Ray was also incredibly intelligent,
witty, and funny. Ray passed away from
complications of his diabetic condition
on August 1, 1998 and we have yet to
have a houseguest that Kathy and I
have enjoyed as much. Ray’s family
was in the supermarket business and
Ray was a nurse, yes, a very large,
very strong, male nurse, the equivalent
of a licensed Registered Nurse in the
United States. He was also licensed
in Australia in Acupuncture and had
formally studied nutrition and other
classes and subjects that would help
him in his profession as well as in
his athletic pursuits. In time, Ray
convinced his father to sell the supermarket
and the family founded what eventually
became the largest privately owned
nursing home in the country until it
was purchased by the Australian government.
He could have retired but instead,
he and his wife Carolyn began their
own Amway business and in typical fashion,
quickly built it into an extremely
lucrative and successful enterprise.
As an athlete, one would be hard pressed
to look at Ray’s hard but roundish
physique and see him as a multi-talented
track and field athlete, but he was
and at the highest levels. Among his
many accomplishments outside of lifting,
were representation of his country
internationally as a 220 pound hurdler
(believe it or not), wrestler as Pan
Asian Champion, and he was named to
the Australian Olympic team as a shot
putter. Older readers of Strength And
Health magazine will remember the article
featuring Ray prior to the 1968 Olympic
Games where as part of the Australian
team, Ray participated in the pre-Olympic
competition designed to acclimate athletes
to the high altitude conditions of
Mexico, and as an Olympic weightlifter,
not as a shot putter, Ray wowed onlookers
with both his performance as a seventeen-year
old competitor, and his eating prowess.
Photos of the two or three foot long
sandwich that Ray snacked on as part
of an eating regimen that would have
staggered the entire defensive line
of the Green Bay Packers drew comments
from readers for months. In one of
my POWERLIFTING USA Magazine columns,
I described one of Ray’s three
week visits to our home, and noted
his huge food intake and his preference
for what he termed “American
sandwiches” which were stacked
with meat and cheese relative to those
he had to endure in his homeland. Of
course, he would shovel three or four
sandwiches, large ones, two or three
times daily, in addition to quarts
of apple juice and his regular meals.
Yet, as aforementioned, he was as hard
as granite.
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Ray
Rigby in Ken's Home Gym |
Ray was also one of the funniest men
to be with and rarely did I see him in
bad humor or troubled to the extent that
anyone in his company would wonder if
he had a care in the world. Completely
devoted to his family, after selling
the family owned nursing home, developing
the new Amway business, and raising and
racing greyhounds, Ray would walk his
children to school in the morning, walk
back to the school yard to see them during
their recess time and bring them lunch,
and then be there for them upon dismissal
so that he could walk them home. Did
I yet mention that he also was a powerlifter?
An Olympian as a shot putter and Olympic
lifter, an international competitor in
track, field, and wrestling, Ray was
also a world class powerlifter. Before
the days of internet and e mail, Ray
and I would exchange letters and one
or two phone calls each month so that
I could write his training programs,
receive feedback, and make any necessary
adjustments, a procedure we followed
for many years and continued when he
was the coach of the Australian Women’s
Team. He would move in with us, despite
his wife’s astonishment that anyone
would be happy with a 300 pound houseguest,
for up to a month at a time to prepare
for the World Powerlifting Championships
and also did so during his shot put comeback
in order to make another Olympic team.
He was intent on making the statement
that he had been a member of Australian
Olympic Teams in three different decades,
an accomplishment he was rightfully proud
of. As a lifter he came to powerlifting
after a severe auto accident that resulted
in a loss of vision due to glass puncturing
one eye, and low back dysfunction that
would need monitoring and control for
the remainder of his life. No longer
able to perform as an Olympic lifter,
he turned to powerlifting and was predictably
successful despite doctors’ warnings
that he would never be able to again
lift anything heavier than a bag of groceries.
His drive and determination, obviously
a requirement for an Olympic level athlete,
never wavered and Ray won two Bronze
Medals at consecutive World Championships
in an era that found him competing against
the likes of Bill Kazmaier at his all
time best. I would gather different groups
of lifters to help spot the huge weights
Ray would use and all of us would be
caught up in the wave of enthusiasm and
motivation Ray brought to the sessions.
I don’t believe I have met anyone
who seemed to enjoy each and every grueling
day of training as much as Ray did and
it was contagious. After we watched him
squat and deadlift 800-plus in one workout,
I made the most obvious tongue-in-cheek
statement of the decade when I noted
that “This is bullshit, I’ll
never even hold the records in my own
garage!” which of course brought
gales of laughter from all present. Typical
when Ray was with us, my lifts would
skyrocket and my weight would increase
by ten to twenty pounds because when
he would eat, I would most often join
him.
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Dr
Ken and Ray Rigby |
Ray’s lifting legacy is glorious,
lengthy, and very well known on his home
continent. He was hugely successful as
the coach of the Australian Women’s
Team that ruled the World Championships
and totaled numerous records over the
course of a number of years. His only
regret during that period, especially
in light of the fact that he loved to
coach and help others improve, was his
attempt to psych up multiple-time World
Champion Bev Francis. After giving her
what he termed “a light tap to
the side of the face” to get her
up for a record attempt, they both immediately
realized he had dislocated her jaw. “She
got the record, we fixed her jaw, and
she was a good sport about it, no harm
done.” as he explained. Ray served
the lifters of his nation as a World
Team representative, an administrator,
coach, and in every way possible to help
the sport to grow and prosper. Right
up to his passing, he would walk out
to his home gym and train, always trying
to improve, even when facing the ravages
of his uncontrolled diabetic condition.
Ray remains in our memory, one of the
absolute nicest and favorite people Kathy
and I have ever known. That today’s
generation of lifters did not know him
or have the chance to benefit from his
ability to teach and motivate is an understated
tragedy. |
Quite of the few locals I was to learn, actually
knew Andy Jackson because as a New Jersey resident
and one of “the old guys” he had
been around the Metropolitan New York City
lifting scene for years. The basement of his
large home in Springfield, N.J. housed his
machine shop and I can only imagine what the
neighbors thought when they saw the truck from
a foundry in Hamburg, PA dump perhaps 10,000
to 15,000 pounds of unpainted, unfinished casted
plates in his driveway. Jackson would take
these plates and drill, machine, and mill them
to what was then, state-of-the-art calibration.
Jackson produced an Olympic set that appeared
to be like others I had seen but he also had
one that was very different. Jackson’s “usual” Olympic
barbell was his No. 1-A and as Andy himself
said it, this set was “the acme of perfection
for weight lifters…” He noted
that he used steel that was “aircraft
quality” and conformed “to U.S.
Navy and Army specifications for extreme strength
and flexibility.” The revolving sleeves
utilized “special Hyatt or Orange aircraft
type roller bearings, two bearings to each
sleeve” and this allowed one to “spin
the bar with the slightest touch of the fingers.” The
reference to aircraft quality components that
met military standards gave a real credibility
to any item that could make that claim. The
late 1950’s and early 1960’s marked
the beginning of the Space Age and Race To
The Moon between the United States and Soviet
Union and everyone over the age of ten knew
that only the most durable and toughest of
materials were going to make that trip! Experienced
lifters also knew that Jackson was a craftsman
who did in fact make a great product because
of all of the “hand labor” that
was involved.
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Jackson
No. 5 Olympic Type Revolving Sleeve Barbell
Plate Clamps |
The “other” Olympic barbell set
that Jackson sold was the Number 5 Olympic
Type Revolving Sleeve Barbell and this was
not immediately recognized by some. The shaft
appeared to be of standard size and at 1-1/16” it
was. The outside sleeves however unlike a “regular
standard” bar, were revolving Olympic
type sleeves but they were 1-5/16” in
diameter which in effect, took a standard type
of bar and converted it into an Olympic type
of barbell with revolving sleeves. The last
few generations would be shocked to learn that
the only way to have a “revolving bar” as
part of your standard and usually sold barbell
set, was to insert the bar into a chromed sleeve
that fit around the shaft. One removed the
adjustable inside collars, slipped the sleeve
over the bar, reattached the inside collars
and with the crude “pipe-within-a-pipe” configuration,
now had a makeshift, revolving barbell set.
This was not to say that with heavier weights
it always made a smooth or complete rotation
and the probability of jamming one’s
wrists when cleaning or worse, trying to snatch
anything more than 200 pounds was an ever present
danger. The odd sized revolving bar, looking
very much like its Olympic weightlifting bar
cousin and nothing like a typical standard
bar, made the Jackson Number 5 Set stand out
when placed on the gym floor with other sets.
The plates were the outstanding black enamel,
deep-hubbed Jackson plate and they looked great
with their large white painted lettering. The
purpose of the Jackson Number 5 Revolving Sleeve
Barbell was to present to the lifting public,
a standard type of set that had the advantage
of an Olympic barbell with its revolving sleeves
and other made-to-last features without the
expense of buying a “real” Olympic
lifting barbell or set. Jackson’s bar
was a “live” one and had very smooth
action, to my memory and according to the comments
made by many others, as smooth as the top rated
York bar. Jackson’s No. 1-A Olympic Barbell
was in the eyes of many, even better than York.
We had the use of two very good sets so knew
we were absolutely well-equipped.
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Jackson
No. 5 Olympic Type Revolving Sleeve Barbell |
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